[lit-ideas] Re: Commencement
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 12:47:58 -0400
Robert quotes:
"We really thought we were going to build a world of peace
and love and justice and harmony . . . and our days were
filled with meaning," he said.
That period, Ansary said, seemed to have the potential to
define not only his life but also the direction of modern
society.
"But the years passed and the juggernaut of industrial
modernity hurtled on," he said, and it was the
counterculture that crumbled and "we who scattered to the
many winds, to become sales executives and lawyers and math
professors and carpenters' wives."
_____________
This sentiment is quote common, I think, and mirrors my own
experience. I wonder how many people on the List have
noticed and felt the same thing?
However, instead of feeling undermined by "the juggernaut of
industrial modernity," I would finger increasing isolated
self-concern, the lack of civic responsibility, the sense of
isolation, the corporate propaganda of the Reagan years and
beyond as crucial sources of the change.
Hence my rant about "needs and wants" and the "inner child."
The turn inward, if anything, hastened the dissolution of
the counterculture into the Yuppie status quo. Selfish
hippies getting stoned and listening to Jerry Garcia aren't
going to change the world--they just get smug and buy stuff
they don't need.
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